Sara’s Fave Photos

We saw the sun for a few minutes this morning, but now all is gray again. In honor of the brief view of the happiness-giving orb, here are two studies in yellow, complete with shadows. Visit Shadow Shot Sunday for more interesting shadows. Go to Color Carnival for more brilliant color, and of course, Mellow Yellow Monday for you know what. Check out Today’s Flowers, too.

The lemons are SOOC, or straight out of the camera. As for the daffs, I couldn’t resist Auto Tone in Photoshop when I saw the neat purple-ish background it produced.

Remember: Now you can always get back to the latest entry here by clicking on the “Sara’s Fave Photos” title in the header, no matter where you’ve wandered in the blog. I invite you to click around, and hope you enjoy your visit.

I was at the Pike Place Market and just adored the huge buckets of daffs as well as all the amazing dried flowers and tulips right now.

On this photo, I’ve blurred the background to make that center one pop a bit. Do you like the effect, or do you prefer the more realistic look? I’m very interested in your reaction.

Visit Mellow Yellow Monday and Macro Monday for other takes on those themes. And how about Blooming Friday, a bit early?

I don’t want to overload this blog with too many photos, so here are just a couple of fave shots I took on Friday. I do love this new camera. Fun!

For more macros/close ups, please check out Macro Monday, and for more views of yellow, go to Mellow Yellow Monday. And visit Color Carnival for more brilliant color!

They do smell heavenly. But be super careful about getting the pollen on your clothes, as it can stain permanently, I’ve found out, unhappily. I grew this and it bloomed in August. They are actually pretty darn easy to grow, but do put in stakes early, because they get tall and delightfully covered with flowers and then maybe a wind comes along and pfffft, it’s a mess. All you gardeners out there, stake early and stake well! You’ll be glad you did.

Visit Macro Monday, Mellow Yellow Monday and Ruby Tuesday for more great photos in blogland. And for sure, Color Carnival, too.

Some of my 18 rosebushes roses have about an inch of new, red growth showing. That means it’s getting to be time to prune, soon as it’s dry out. I’ve been raising roses for a number of years, so here are some suggestions for all you people who feel intimidated by rosebushes. Feel free to let us know via comments if you know differently.

1) Wear good gloves! Leather is best, cuffs are good. Don’t wear a sweater which can catch on thorns.

2) Use nice sharp pruning shears. I like a bypass style with hooked blades to get in closely.

3) The basic desired shape of the bush should be an “open vase” which lets sun into the center.

4) Don’t prune away more than 1/3 of the rose bush. Roses store food in their canes.

5) For older roses, if you must remove a big cane, take the oldest first. The oldest ones are the grayest and roughest. Use a little hand saw if you need to. Be careful! Do not leave more than a short stub if possible. Dead wood invites insects.

6) Always start by removing dead wood and any scrawny little branches thinner than a pencil. Trim those flush to the bigger stem. Roses bloom on vigorous, new branches.

7) Remove any crossing branches, especially if touching, and any that point or cross into the center of the plant. Remember, gently upright canes slanting outwards is best.

8 ) Cut less than you think. You can always cut more later! Never remove more than 1/3 the plant. Young plants: prune very lightly until rose is well established. Cut no shorter than knee height, possibly waist height if they are taller roses. You probably want the flowers to wind up no higher than your face, and the stems have to grow a bit before they have flowers, so you do want to cut them back somewhat.

9) Make each cut just above new growth that is going to grow in the right direction, outwards. Look closely! Those leaves or red bumps are where the new cane will grow. Leave about 1/4″ of the cane remaining over the new growth joint, using a slightly slanted cut.

10) Break off any small shoots that point inwards or are growing down below a cane towards the ground. Just break it off with your fingers, so the plant doesn’t waste its energy growing a cane in a bad place. You can do this throughout the growing season.

I would wait to fertilize until the weather warms up a bit. You don’t want to encourage tender new growth if it still might freeze.

That’s it! Enjoy your beautiful new well-pruned roses, this year and every year.

Here’s a yellow rose to get you dreaming of roses come June. Visit Macro Monday for more close ups, and Mellow Yellow Monday for more golden hues.

That bouquet my sister brought last week yielded another photo I really like. Here is an alstroemeria blossom with its floral friends. I do like daylight best, but sometimes even incandescent light can be lovely for flowers.

Visit Today’s Flowers to see other flowers, and Shadow Shot Sunday for more shadow creativity. Macro Monday has close ups, and Mellow Yellow Monday showcases golden yellow. Have fun!

I really like this one a lot, so I’ve tagged it Best Post of the Week. Check out some other self-selected posts. Fascinating.

My sister brought me some flowers the other day and these gerbera daisies are still going strong. So cheerful in the Seattle “sunbreak” we had for a while this morning.

See more interesting shadows at Shadow Shot Sunday. And more brilliant colors at Color Carnival. More straight-out-of-the-camera shots at SOOC. More yellow at Mellow Yellow Monday. More macros at Macro Monday. And more flowers at Flowers for Today!

I’ve discovered that I’ve left incorrect links to some recent meme entries, and I apologize. I thought that by leaving the link to the category it would help people find things, but I didn’t realize that sorting by category disables the comment feature. No wonder it seemed so quiet out there! Sorry, everyone. I’ll go back to leaving the general blog url for most memes and let visitors find their way by category if they wish, or just by scrolling down a little bit. Please DO leave a comment if you feel so inspired; I love them. I’ll do my best to return the visit as soon as I am able.

Since everyone likes this photo so much, and since I like it a ton also, I’m calling this my Best Post of the Week. Check out the cream of the blog week there.

Even though winter just got here, officially, I’m already thinking towards the bulbs of spring. These tulips were at the New York Bronx Botanical Garden last May. For more cheery splashes of yellow, visit Mellow Yellow Monday. Let’s have a dream of spring tulips, shall we? And hie on over to Scenic Sunday while there’s still a bit of Sunday left.

I seem to be most attracted to photos from exactly half a year ago. This one was in a neighbor’s yard. Alstroemeria is a very nice spreading perennial that can take a bit of neglect. And they make superb cut flowers, lasting a LONG time. The only downside is no scent. I planted some pink ones and we’ll see if they do well.

For more closeups, visit Macro Monday, and for more brilliant yellow, visit Mellow Yellow Monday.

That’s what my mom used to say, snug as a bug in a rug. As a literal-minded child, I was mystified. But now that’s what comes to mind when I see a photo like this. These are not my kitties, more’s the pity. Can’t you almost hear them purrrrr? And there’s that faint smile I see. Life is good, the look says.

For more photos with at least a dash of yellow, visit Mellow Yellow Monday. And while this isn’t really a macro, it is kind of close up, so check out Macro Monday for more carefully seen things.

This sunflower, photo taken in my garden in September, is actually a volunteer plant, sown accidentally by the birds or squirrels from the black oil sunflower seeds they love to eat. It’s a good system. The birds spill a ton of seed from the feeder on a pole on the lawn, and the squirrels who cannot raid the baffled feeder are the clean-up crew on the ground. Everyone fat and happy, and the contented squirrels seem to leave the tulips and daffodill bulbs alone.

Visit Macro Monday for more close ups and Mellow Yellow Monday while you’re out and about, along with Color Carnival.

Free Photography Lighting Class starts tomorrow, Tuesday, 11am Seattle time. I’m registered and can’t wait. These classes (I’ve taken others from this group) are just super, and they are free.

On Friday evening I took two craft workshops. One was making handmade snowflake blockprint giftwrap, way fun, and the other was a mini Letterpress workshop. They were both so cool. Here is a photo from the letterpress class of some of the ink ready for us students to roll over the letters we had arranged (backwards, of course) in a tray, ready to image.

For more visions of cheerful yellow, visit Mellow Yellow Monday. And for more thought-provoking close ups, check out Macro Monday. If you like brilliant color, toddle over to Color Carnival, too. And aren’t the Reflections cool?

PLEASE IGNORE IF READ BEFORE about the 2009 Photoblog Awards. If you like my photos, please vote for this photoblog before Dec. 15 and leave a comment in the link  below. You have to register (name and password only) and then click on the word Vote in the upper left. Thanks very much! Photoblog Awards 2009

Flowers with colored petal edges are called picotee, I understand, and they are some of my faves. This begonia has to be taken indoors to wait out the cold weather. I repotted it in the spring and it did take a good while to get going again, but then it did very well. They like a good amount of fertilizer, that’s for sure.

For more cheerful yellow, visit Mellow Yellow Monday, and for more close ups, visit Macro Monday.

Only two months ago, but such a difference. Outside the rain continues, but I can marvel at the perfection of a dahlia that was. Didn’t my garden look good? This was a great gardening year in Seattle, and I salute it.

For more flowers around the world, visit Flowers for Today. And visit Color Carnival for more brilliant colors. Try Macro Monday for more intriguing close ups, and Mellow Yellow Monday for more, well, yellow.

And I’ve chosen this post for my Best Post of the Week (BPOTW). If you’d like to see more self-selected posts of an incredible variety, check it out.

PLEASE IGNORE IF READ BEFORE about the 2009 Photoblog Awards. If you like my photos, please vote for this photoblog and leave a comment in the link  below. You have to register (name and password only) and then click on the word Vote in the upper left. Thanks very much! Photoblog Awards 2009

A couple of weeks or so ago there was a big windstorm after a rainy spell, and the first leaves blew off the trees. Still fresh and perfect, the colors were more like delicious candy corn than the crunchy brown I remember from long-ago New York autumns.

See Mellow Yellow Monday and Macro Monday for more yellow and close-ups, and check out Color Carnival for more brilliant colors. Do you think they are worthy of Scenic Sunday as well? They are all SOOC, or straight out of the camera, and while we’re at it, visit Ruby Tuesday for more ruby redness.

Which one do YOU like best of the photos? Top, middle, or bottom?

Visit BPOTW for more blog posts chosen by their authors as the Best of the Week.

I do still have a few dahlias that got a late start this year and are now at their peak. They are just so exuberant!

Visit Flowers for Today for the most amazing flower photos. And check out Color Carnival for more bright colors to amaze and amuse. Macro Monday has more close ups, and Mellow Yellow Monday (of course!) more yellow.

PLEASE IGNORE IF READ BEFORE: Readers arrive on different days, so I’m repeating about the 2009 Photoblog Awards. If you like my photos, please vote for me and/or leave a comment in the link  below. You have to register (name and password only) and then click on the word Vote in the upper left. Thanks very much!

Photoblog Awards 2009

The yellow of these leaves is really a very mellow shade, don’t you think? Took this photo a couple of weeks ago, but it’s so perfect for today’s meme. We’ve since had a windstorm, so maybe those branches are bare now. Autumn is glorious, but brief.

Visit Mellow Yellow Monday for more ochre of all kinds.

PLEASE IGNORE IF READ BEFORE: Many readers arrive on different days, so I”m repeating this about entering the 2009 Photoblog Awards. If you like my photos, please vote for me and/or leave a comment in the link  below. You have to register (name and password only) and then click on the word Vote in the upper left. Thanks very much!

http://vote.photoblogawards.com/photoblog.php?name=saras-fave-photos

There was a chance of a light frost last night but thank goodness, false alarm. Most plants are fine with a brush with 32 degrees, but not nasturtiums. They totally melt. Glad we have some more time with these lovelies.

Visit Macro Monday for more close ups and Mellow Yellow Monday for more . . . yellow (you guessed it!). And this one’s for the Color Carnival folks, too!

You’ve gotta love backyard tomatoes. It’s just remarkable how different they are from store-bought, even those “on the vine” ones with the green tops they sell these days. The complexity and magnificence of the flavor of a homegrown tomato is just . . . well, words fail me. Hope the photo helps a little.

For more fascinating macros, visit Macro Monday. For more photos with at least a splash of yellow, visit Mellow Yellow Monday. And heck, let’s get Ruby Tuesday in on this as well! Anyone for more bright colors at Color Carnival?

This plant is poisonous, but so very beautiful. I had seen white ones, but never this peach shade or the pale yellow. For more close ups, visit Macro Monday. And for those who adore yellow, try Mellow Yellow Monday for more flashy color.

This is another bouquet creation that I photographed at the recent flower show put on by the local garden clubs. The lighting wasn’t as good for the “designs” (arrangements) as it was for the horticulture. And I detest flash on most things and especially flowers. But even so, the warmth and cheeriness of this one seems to shine through. I hope so, anyway. It’s for you, dear reader!

For more close ups, visit Macro Monday. And for more splashes of yellow, visit Mellow Yellow Monday. And for extremely colorific photos, visit Color Carnival.

I love the macro setting on my little point-and-shoot Canon. It lets us really look at something in a way we rarely think to do. These three small pansy blossoms from my garden (from a volunteer plant!), each less than an inch and a half (4 cm) wide show us their perfection. Visit Macro Monday for other interesting close ups, and Mellow Yellow Monday for other photos with some interesting yellow components.

Now that the roses are planted they are just taking off, late in the season though it is. This is a Broadway rose, so happy now. For more Mellow Yellow Monday visions, or Macro Monday close ups, or even Color Carnival scintillations, go on and check them out.

Picked these this week. Not everyone knows about lemon cucumbers, upper right. Pick them before they get bright yellow, when they really look like lemons! They are quite delicate and delicious.

Happy Macro Monday, Mellow Yellow Monday, and Ruby Tuesday. We are off camping and will return in a few days. Ta-ta!

It’s Macro Monday time. This Black-eyed Susan or rudbeckia plant is a real winner to me because it blooms midsummer and later in sun or shade and survives really tough conditions. This lovely blossom was in my friend Eileen’s garden. And happy Mellow Yellow Monday!